Ex-Communist Slovaks Flex Their Muscles

By WILLIAM E. SCHMIDT,

Published: June 9, 1992

PRAGUE, June 8—
One after another, the candidates rose to speak last week at the campaign's final rally in Bratislava, standing behind a podium wrapped in bright red cloth as they urged voters to remember that only the Party of the Democratic Left of Slovakia would defend the rights of workers.

The candidates were mostly former Communists, and while few in the audience knew it, the red fabric was a Communist flag, carefully folded to hide the hammer and sickle.

Similarly, many ex-Communists in Czechoslovakia have turned a new face to the country this spring. Now they call themselves social democrats and hawk slogans like, "We're not against riches. We are just against poverty."

In the nationwide balloting that finished here Saturday, just 30 months after the old pro-Soviet Communist Government surrendered to popular protests demanding free elections, leftists -- including a smattering of actual Communists -- won about 14 percent of the vote, making them the third largest bloc in both the nation's and the republics' parliaments.

It is about the same proportion they won in the elections in 1990. But with Czechoslovakia's new federal Parliament badly polarized, the leftists and former Communists in Slovakia, in particular, have emerged as key players in a political free-for-all.

It is a measure of their position that Vladimir Meciar, the Slovak populist who won 37 percent of the vote in the eastern republic, met first thing today with Peter Weiss, the young and energetic chief of the Slovak leftist party, to discuss forming a coalition to balance the right-wing parties that make up the largest bloc in the Czech republic.

Such a coalition would control the Slovak republic's Parliament, where Mr. Meciar could push his own separate program for Slovakia.

But while the leftists agree with Mr. Meciar, himself a former Communist, in wanting to put the brakes on economic reform and give Slovakia more control over its own economy, they are opposed to breaking up the Czechoslovak federation. The federal Parliament elected over the weekend is divided between Czech advocates of rapid economic reform and Slovak separatists.

During the campaign, Mr. Meciar used rallies and stump speeches to exploit longstanding resentment of the more prosperous Czech republic, where unemployment is barely a third of what it is in Slovakia. Among other things, he wants to slow the transition to a Western-style market economy.

In addition, Mr. Meciar reaffirmed today that he is determined to dump President Vaclav Havel when he comes up for re-election by Parliament next month. For his part, Mr. Havel sent a message today that he would like to remain as President, but only on his terms. Michael Zantosky, Mr. Havel's spokesman, said Mr. Havel's candidacy "makes sense only if two conditions are fulfilled: a common state should be preserved and the reforms begun in 1989 can continue." Talking to a Rival

The fate of Mr. Havel and, ultimately, the federation will turn to a large degree on negotiations over a new Government between Mr. Meciar and Vaclav Klaus, his powerful right-wing rival in the Czech republic. Mr. Klaus and the Civic Democratic Alliance have the most seats in Parliament but will be unable to govern alone.

In looking for allies, Mr. Meciar also met today with Jozef Prokes, the leader of the smaller Slovak National Party, who is staunchly in favor of a separate state but is far to the right of both Mr. Weiss and Mr. Meciar. In his campaign posters, for example, Mr. Prokes showed a photograph of himself with Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Weiss, who is 42 years old, represents post-Soviet neo-Communism. He is attractive and energetic, and exit polls conducted by Infas, the German polling concern, suggest that he attracted a large number of young and well-educated voters in Slovakia.

"There is a new attitude toward us this election," said Milan Ftacnik, a former Communist and a leftist member of the Slovak Parliament. "In the elections two years ago, people tore down our posters. Now the anger is directed more at the ruling Government in Prague."